From a recent guest:
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the 14th Sunday of the Year
The German word “Schadenfreude,” is one we have come to use in those situations where the misfortune of another brings us pleasure—albeit one we will not openly admit to. Similarly, we have probably all had the experience of hoping for the downfall and punishment of some villain portrayed in a film or novel. In daily […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for Corpus Christi
In the long history of Christianity heresies have sometimes been associated with Christians unwilling to live with mystery and thus seeking (with puny human intelligence) to comprehend and describe the infinite. And although this tendency has been more pronounced in the great mysteries of the Trinity and the person of Christ, it has not been […]
Gift Shop Closing Days
Please Note: The Gift Shop will be closed all day Thursday July 11 in honor of the Solemnity of Our Father, Saint Benedict, and will reopen on Friday morning at 10.00 a.m.
Friday of the Eleventh Week of the Year
Saint Paul’s claim that he would rather boast of his weaknesses than his strengths rings a little hollow coming, as it does, after a very impressive cataloging of the sufferings and persecutions that he so courageously endured. But two phrases following this long catalog of heroic endurance reflect the ultimate humility of this great apostle. […]
Fr. James’ Homily for Trinity Sunday
In dogmatic theology we refer to the Trinity as a “procession,” that is to say, something or someone that “proceeds”. In the Creed we speak of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, and this, in fact, refers to John’s Gospel, at the end of Chapter Fifteen: the Spirit of Truth that proceeds from the […]
Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Our motivations for doing things are not always as clear as we might think, or as pure and unselfish as they need to be. Ideally, we should, like Paul, be impelled by love in all that we do—echoing Saint Augustine’s adage, love and do what you will. Unfortunately, pure love and unselfish love cannot be […]
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua
Like some low-grade, persistent, but untreated infection in the body that, though not life-threatening, constantly undermines a person’s health, so habitual patterns of sin whose deeper roots are never uncovered may not extinguish the light of grace, but they do constantly rob us of inner peace and preclude that purity of heart without which we […]
Abbot Joseph’s Homily for the Ascension
Spiritually, there has long been a negative association with the depths of the earth as the realm of the dead and of hell. Conversely, the sky and the heights are associated with the realm of the living and the glories of heaven. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that Christ’s return to the Father in his […]
A Word from the Cistercian Fathers
“ ….in the seven appearances [of the Lord] that we read took place after the resurrection we can find the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Take the first the spirit of fear: an angel came down from heaven as the holy women were coming to the tomb, and the earth shook, so that they […]